Thought Pills: “Intricacies of Life”
The other day, I was on a bus heading to work. So I got in and sat on an empty seat. After the bus left, within about 4 minutes, I looked straight ahead of me on my left and saw an elderly woman. She looked quite exhausted, or if I may say, troubled. Now, that’s not even what caught my attention. What did were the scars on her skin. The blouse she was wearing showed her skin, so there was really nothing to hide. I mean, if she had anything to hide, she would have worn something that covered her scars.
The scars were not the normal ones I’m used to seeing, like from getting burned while cooking or from a cat scratching me for no reason. They were different. They looked deep and seemed to have a long story behind them. I’m not a person who meddles in other people’s business; I like minding my own life. That day, her scars caught my attention the whole ride to the extent that I literally felt pain looking at them. I know it sounds ridiculous, but the sight of another person’s pain gives me pain.
I kept asking myself, what could be the story? Now, to be clear, the scars seemed like they came from consistent physical abuse, and the fact that she had no problem with people seeing them just showed how she isn’t ashamed of her pain. I kept thinking about her the whole day. One thing that occurred to me is that she is just one of a population of people who have or are going through hell on earth.
Life is hard. Let’s just say it as it is. Call a spade a spade. We are all getting it tough, and there are others who are getting the toughest part of the pie. It reminded me to be grateful for every small thing. I can’t even fathom how many folks or rather what people are going through out here. If I had the time to engage with that lady, I’m pretty sure it would have been a long story because every scar runs just as deep as it looks. Those were not decade-old scars; they were recent, it could even be months.
The other day, I was watching TV, and there was a news feature about a lady who works with rescuing young girls who have gone through sexual abuse in her community and rehabilitating them until they can be ready to go back to society or even helping them get scholarships. There are many people like her who are doing similar things in my country. What caught my attention is when she was explaining how society is quick to judge these victims.
Too often, when you have been through any form of physical violence, people tend to blame you, saying, “Oh, why didn’t you do anything to defend yourself?” or “Why did you go to his house?” or “What were you doing outside at night?” Like, are we being serious? No one wakes up in the morning to go and look for someone to hurt them. She was explaining how the abuser most of the time always has a weapon, and if the victim says even a word, they get killed.
Things aren’t always as black and white as we expect them to be. I personally believe naivety is a major killer in our societies. We are so stuck in our ways of thinking; we don’t want to open ourselves up to new perspectives of seeing things. We are hanging on to the status quo, and no wonder we’re not progressing at the pace we would wish.
Have you ever wondered what’s the purpose of life? Not what’s your purpose in life. Why did God create life? Why did He decide to make all this that we see? That’s very complex thinking, but what matters is we’re here. As much as we can’t or may never explain why things are the way they are, we have to figure out how to survive life.
Life is intricate in so many ways. Every drunk person isn’t drunk because they’re stupid; every mentally disturbed person didn’t choose to be that way; people don’t always choose for life to happen to them the way it does. This mysterious nature of life, I believe, is very frightening, and yet, in the end, I hope we will look back and see it is what made life worth living.
This takes me to think about suicide. I was shocked a while back to find out that in my country, suicide is considered a crime. It’s just recently that they’re discussing about decriminalizing it. Like who made this laws? Instead of rehabilitating a person, you’ll lock them up in prison? How does that make the situation better? I am aware of the fact that pre-pandemic mental health wasn’t a common discussion as it is right now. However, how does that make sense?
I always see life as an empty canvas. We choose what goes on it, or even sometimes, other people choose for us. At a higher level, God chooses for us. As much as we like to think we have control of our lives, to a greater extent, we actually don’t. We don’t get to control if we see tomorrow, if we see the next year or not. But, we get to choose how to live it once we open our eyes in the morning.
As a child, I never thought ill of anyone. Everyone was a good person, blameless to say, as long as they bought me what I wanted. Now, as a young teenager, that’s not the case. The naivety has been washed away, and now I’m aware of the dangers of this world. We see it all over the news. And yet, that’s not all life has to offer. There are so many amazing experiences and people to encounter. And that’s just the intricacy of life.
